Exploring The Dark Side. Review of hacker sites Essay

Exploring The distressing Side. Review of hacker sites - Essay ExampleIndeed, as Gold (2001) argues, there is an overriding tendency to savvy of all hackers as objective on the accessing otherwise private information for the purpose of criminal rehearse and profit. Certainly, a not insignificant percentage of hacks into corporate informationbases is motivated by precisely such an mark but an equally significant percentage is motivated by the intent to expose bail flaws. The intent to expose, as Gold (2001) contends, is not accompanied by an underlying criminal or financial demand but simply by the determination to prove that the security systems which companies stand invested large amounts of money in are, indeed, flawed and easily penetrated by skipper hackers. Interestingly, the four sites mentioned appear to evidence Golds (2001) argument.The technical information provided in these sites can be interpreted as hacking guidance information but, more significantly, it direc ts attention to existent security flaws and data vulnerability. In its announcement of a four-day hacker conference, the Cult of the Dead cow effectively evidences that hackers stand a constructive role to play in the securitization of information. For example, the mentioned conference announcement is accompanied by a call for papers on network penetration, malware generation and, importantly, network security. The implication here is that hackers are actively involved in the study of network security flaws, aspects of network vulnerability and information warfare strategies, as based on existent flawed security and suggest strategies for the resolution of these weaknesses and vulnerabilities. As may have been deduced from the preceding paragraph, Cult of the Dead Cow may be perceived of as a exacting contribution to information assurance and the fact that this statement may be extended to embrace professional hacker communities per se, is established through a review of I Hack St uff. The latter site is highly informative because it establishes the extent to which data and networks are vulnerable by illustrating how supposedly sensitive and extremely skillful information, such as administrator login information, customer lists and websites member databases, including passwords, may all be accessed through a google search. I Hack Stuff provides a long list of the google search terms that one needfully to enter in order to access this information and upon experimenting with it, I discovered that the information is valid.Certainly, the information which I Hack Stuff provides may be interpreted as an immediate and intolerable ethical rapine insofar as it directs novices, or experimenters, towards the location of information which allows for the successful hacking of supposedly secure websites. Taken from other perspective, however, such information may be interpreted as a constructive contribution to data and information assurance. It exposes security flaws and